


A Week in Beach City

by Rintrash



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: AU, Alternate Universe, F/F, Mermaid Lapis Lazuli, human peridot
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-11-16
Updated: 2017-06-27
Packaged: 2018-05-01 22:58:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 13
Words: 17,866
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5224220
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rintrash/pseuds/Rintrash
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Peridot has a hard time coping with social interaction, she's never liked that humans are unpredictable. She prefers robotics and all that is electrical... But when she leaves for a family vacation at Beach city, she makes a discovery that makes her doubt what she knows. [AU]</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Peridot was a Geek. But everyone knew that. She was top of her class in Robotics, Math and science. She loved everything that could be logically explained. She loved creating things with that logic. She would build all types of things; thanks to her part-time job she could spend her type building computers, she spent her spare time building small robots using automated systems to perform simple tasks. Her long-term project to create an almost independent robot that could perform multiple tasks using reasoning, though the process was slow, she knew that her 'robonoids' would someday become a reality. But she also enjoyed the simpler things such as browsing the internet, and even owning a rather popular blog named 'Peribot'; the content was usually about scientific news but also her personal projects, and very rarely, her own troubles. She just really loved electronics and how it meant she didn't really have to interact with many people in real life.

It wasn't that she disliked people, she just couldn't use her logic to understand erratic human behavior. When asked a question, a human had way too many possibilities in responses, physically, mentally, vocally... Too many chances an interaction could go wrong. Something she'd experienced too many times for her to ever enjoy it. Robots had predictable responses to stimuli, she liked predictability. At least then she could have control.

Peridot was sitting at the desk in the bedroom, lights off except the desk light that shone over her textbook. She had a pen in one hand, writing calculations and design details down as the other one hovered over her calculator. She wasn't sure what time it was, but she figured it was approximately 3 hours since she got home, making it about 7pm, which would explain her mother calling her to come downstairs. But she simply ignored it, preferring to finish what she was doing before she forgot what she was thinking.

Finishing up, she shut the book and moved it aside, put the cover over her overly expensive calculator and put the lid back on her pen. Once she was happy with the order of her desk, she switched off the light and headed downstairs.

Reaching the kitchen, she stood silently, waiting for her mother to turn around to speak to her. She was finishing serving up the evening dinner, what smelt like it was lasagna. And as her mother noticed her presence, Peridot confirmed the meal.

"Peridot! Grab a plate and go sit down; your father and I have some good news for next week!" She smiled and handed her a plate. Peridot silently sighed and headed through to the dining room, successfully avoiding her short brother's sprint to the kitchen. She sat at her spot, opposite her dad and waited for the other two to join them. As usual, her father simply waited for his dear wife to bring him his food while he sat doing nothing. Peridot could never understand why her mother just simply catered to his needs when he clearly had the capability of doing it himself. But that was a conversation she learnt not to start with the close minded man.

Her little brother ran back through holding his plate, followed by his mother, bringing in two plates as she had predicted. Her father scolded her brother for running and thanked his wife for the food. She sat beside him and her brother next to her. The usual placement for the evening meal. She waited till the great man of the house started eating before allowing herself to start. And to avoid conversation, she looked down at her lasagna, reciting the ingredients and the recipe in her head with a slight smile.

"As at the end of this week it is Spring Break for both of you, your mother and i have decided that we'll go for a week's holiday at Beach City!"

Her little brother raised his arms up and waved them happily, his fork still in hand and flicking food around the table. Peridot on the other hand was less joyous. Not only she was receiving bits of sauce on her, but she didn't really fancy the idea of leaving her home and having to interact actively with her family. She did love them, but she didn't enjoy spending time with them, her father was difficult to talk to, though predictable; her little brother was the devil; and her mother... Wasn't helpful.

"Danny" her mother softly reprimanded the boy with a tired sigh. He grinned back at her, as if pleased with his mess. She guessed that cleaning him now would be useless as he'd probably make a mess again, so she let him be. Much to Peridot's displeasure. She wiped her glasses clean and looked for all the stains on her clothing. She glared at the happy boy. He'd stained her favorite sweater.

"We'll be leaving on Saturday, the trip will take us a couple of hours so plan a book or something." Her father added between fork fulls of food. Peridot grumbled under her breath, she knew how this holiday was going to go. It was going to be like every other one that she'd been forced into. Her father would leave after two days for a work emergency, her mother would try too hard, her brother would get in trouble and she would simply be annoyed and bored. But at least she would have her laptop and internet to keep her busy.

"So how was school today Danny?" her mother asked, not truly caring about what he had done at school.

"It was boring, we read poetry..."

"Oh, whose poetry did you read?"

"Um.. Robert Louis Stevenson? It was about a cow, " he grinned as he remembered "He said he loved his cow and it ate flowers" Her mother's eyes then shifted to Peridot who had continued to avoid their stare.

"And you Peridot?"

"School was fine." Her mother raised a brow. Peridot knew that her mother was waiting to hear more, she didn't even need to look up to know that. So she raised her head and looked at her blankly "We discussed navigation sensors and systems in Robotics, but i doubt you want me to go into that." She smirked slightly as her mother gave up on pursuing more information about her day, put off by the details of her classes. After a few minutes, she finished her portion of Lasagna and looked up to her father. "Can I leave the table please?"

"Yes" Peridot hated that even at her age, she had to wait for permission to leave the table like a child. She was in college now, she was nineteen, an adult. Yet she still lived with her parents. It wasn't that she didn't want to leave, it was a more of a case that they didn't want her to leave. She found their reasoning on that quite wrong, but it was a another fragile subject. She headed out to the kitchen and slid her plate into the dishwasher before making her way back up to her bedroom. Time to prepare her bags for their family holiday.


	2. Chapter 2

After having suffered a two hour long drive in their family car, Peridot got out of the car and stretched. She took a second to observe her surroundings as the rest of her family exited the vehicle. They had parked their car by the beach, no too far off from the broad-walk. The town was small, with what she guessed was a small population. It wasn't often that a perfect beach was empty. But she's was ok with that, it meant she had a lot of space to escape to if her family became a bit too much for her to handle.

"Grab your bags kids, we'll head straight to the beach house." Her father announced as he opened the boot of the car, pulling out bags and suitcases. They each grabbed their own and after locking the car, he led the way across the broad walk and on a path down onto the beach, leading to a lonely house.

The white house was placed slightly to the side, making the area more private. It was rather small, as expected for a holiday home, but the interior was spacious and utterly white. And out facing the beach, they had a veranda and their own pool. Something Peridot thought was useless as they had the sea.

Her parents claimed the largest room, and her brother fought to have the second largest. She simply let him have it, it wasn't as if it was useful to her in any way. She shut the door to her temporary room and opened her suitcase. She pulled out the clothes and settled them out neatly on the shelves. She then pulled out her laptop and its charger, leaving the rest of the stuff in her bag.

Sat on her bed, she opened up and switched on her laptop, waiting out the start screen by humming one of the annoying tunes from the radio. She typed her password and let the machine loads a second before checking the internet. She refreshed once, twice and a few more times. No Wifi. Her heart skipped a beat. No, she couldn't accept this! There had to be LAN access or a modem?

She hopped off her bed and checked her room for a socket. None. So she spread her search out to the house. She checked the upstairs bedrooms, the living room, the kitchen, dining room, even the laundry and bathroom. None. There was no LAN socket, no modem. They had come to a beach house without internet.

She gave up and sat back on the couch, looking at the ceiling in deep thought. What was she going to do? There wasn't much she could do on her laptop without internet, she had a few games, but they were finished. She didn't bring her USB key with her notes from her project. She hadn't thought about preparing films or music. What was she going to do for a whole week?

"Sweetie, are you ok?" Her mother asked, passing behind her.

"There's no internet. "

"Oh, isn't there? That's a shame, but that's ok, I'm sure we can find activities to do together?" She offered. Peridot grumbled and stood up.

"I'm going out to stretch my legs." She headed out onto the terrace and onto the beach. She looked to the left, and then to the right. To the left was the main beach, an open space in front of the broad walk. On the opposite side was a rocky area. If she went left, there was a chance that she would run into someone, and she really didn't want that right now. So she decided to go right, towards the rocky side of the beach. She stepped onto the sand and quickly reached the rocky area, and was glad that she had kept her sneakers on. The ground was uneven and unstable, but she managed to steadily continue her way across.

She soon reached a spot that she found decent to sit at. It was a slightly large rock formation at the edge of the beach. She figured she could take her shoes off and dip her feet in the warm water. So she wobbled to the rock that she spotted and took off her shoes before sitting herself down on it, letting her feet dip slightly in the water before submerging them.

She sighed. She was still angry that she was spending a week in a place without internet. She couldn't understand how anyone in their right mind wouldn't install some sort of access to the world wide web in their home. And most of all, what was she going to do for a whole week ? She was at least glad that she had found herself a quiet spot where she wouldn't be disturbed.

She pulled her phone out from her pocket and unlocked it. She flicked through the menu screen and pressed on the music icon. She lazily flicked through her music before pressing on a random track. She smiled as a remix of Dog of Wisdom played and put the phone in her pocket. She hummed to the strangely catchy tune, and watched the waves slowly roll towards the shore. Maybe she would go for a swim later on in the day, the water did seem nice. It wasn't as if she had anything better to do. She shut her eyes to listen to the music and splashed around her feet in the salty water.

The music switched to a track from the Lord of the Rings and she let her mind go blank. She found it soothing to let her brain go sometimes. She found that doing so would actually help her productivity and sharpness. It was like recharging her energy. She would of even laid back to rest, but the rocky surface wasn't the best choice for such an activity. So she settled for just propping herself up with her arms slightly angled behind her. She let her feet come to a stop and started to doze off, but was suddenly jolted awake when she heard a cough.

"Hello"

Peridot's heart raced from the adrenaline of the shock. There was a girl in the water facing her. When did she get there? And her skin... Was blue? How could body paint resist water? That wasn't right.

"...Hi, " she muttered. She came to this spot to be alone, but she couldn't even get that.

"That's nice music, were's it coming from?" The girl asked with a slight air of confusion in her eyes. Peridot frowned. Where was the music coming from? Her phone, duh, but how could the girl not know that? Anyone these days knew that music playing was probably from a phone or other small device. Maybe this town is weird about technology? It would explain the lack of wifi.

"Oh, it's from my phone, " she grabbed the phone from her pocket to show her. She swam closer and examined the object with curiosity, making Peridot feel slightly uncomfortable.

"A.. Phone?"

"Yes..." Peridot mumbled ".. A Mobile Telephone. It's used primarily to communicate with people?"

"Ohh ok" the girl smiled with understanding "I've never seen a 'phone' before. How does such a small thing communicate with people? How do people's voices get in there?" She approached the edge of the rocky area, making the other girl realize how deep the water was at this part of the beach was.

"Well a mobile phone converts your voice into an electrical signal, which is then transmitted as radio waves and converted back into sound by the other person's phone. A basic mobile phone is therefore little more than a combined radio transmitter and a radio receiver, quite similar to a walkie-talkie or CB radio." She paused a second before continuing her explanation "In order to remain portable, mobile phones need to have relatively compact antennas and use a small amount of power. This means that mobile phones can send a signal over only a very short range-" She came to a stop as she noticed the girl was looking at her with a mix of confusion and awe. The girl was absolutely clueless to what she was talking about. How can people like that still exist?

"I'm Lapis Lazuli, what's your name?"

"Peridot" She paused the music and put her phone back in her pocket and observed the girl. The Blue paint didn't seem like it was coming off, and actually, it looked like it extended to the rest of her body as far as she could see. And as far as she could see, she wasn't wearing a bikini or swimming costume. This Lapis Lazuli was really strange.

"That's a nice name, it suits you, " she smiled so genuinely that Peridot felt the kindness seep into her skin. She shuddered at the feeling. "You're very smart, " she pointed out, making the other girl chuckle. Of course she was smart. She only knew a small amount of people that were smarter than her.

"Thanks." She simply replied, but the blue girl's eyes were set on her with curiosity. "Aren't you cold? If you get out I can give you my vest." She offered.

"Oh, I can't, " she paused a second with an air of sadness before adding "Besides the water is actually quite nice."

"You can't get out? Why not?" Was she ashamed about her body? Peridot really didn't care that she was skinny dipping, she'd even offered her vest to cover herself to keep her warm and covered. The girl laughed and swam back slightly, letting the rest of her body float to the surface. Peridot's eyebrows raised to a rare height as she gawked. "You-you're a-" She paused a second and frowned, regaining her composure. This was impossible. Such things didn't exist. They were mythological creatures invented by men to tell a good story. "Are you kidding me." She groaned.


	3. Chapter 3

Lapis Lazuli smiled and approached the edge again, observing Peridot's reaction. To be truthful, it was the first time that she had ever met a human. She had heard so many bad things about them from her family, her friends, and the rest of their colony. But this girl seemed nice. She hadn't attacked her, hadn't forcefully pulled her out of the water, hadn't run.. Yet. And really, she seemed just as lonely as she did.

"This isn't a joke... Is it?" she double checked with the girl in the water. Was there a group of girls laughing at her right now? Was this just some really well prepared prank? Lapis shook her head with her sweet smile. "But... H-how?" She mumbled. This went against everything she knew, there was proof they were just a myth. Mermaids scientifically couldn't exist. "Are there... Many of you?"

"In my colony? We're about fifty. I heard there are a few colonies around the world. I've never met them though," She rested her arms on the rock, looking up at Peridot who stared back at her with a slight blush. "We stay away from humans, though. Humans haven't been too kind to us."

"So why are you here talking to me?"

"You looked like you could use some company," the other girl frowned slightly. Did she look like she needed company? She scoffed. She didn't need anyone, she was just fine on her own. "Besides, you're not as bad as they make you out to be."

"You've seen nothing. Humans are terrible, we judge each other by appearances, beliefs and sexual orientations and we spread war for money and power over others."

"But you're not."

Peridot paused. Was that a compliment? Was a mermaid complimenting her of all people? She concluded that her kind must have low expectations. It was the only way she could ever receive a compliment. "I might not be terrible, but I'm not nice." The other girl's face straightened and looked at her with utter seriousness.

"You are nice. You haven't done anything bad to me."

"Fft maybe not to you, but from other people's input I'm not that pleasant to be around." She grumbled. "They call me pretentious, grumpy and antisocial. Which is utter nonsense, I'm just confident in my knowledge, and selective with my relationships." She gestured as she explained. What others saw as her flaws, were to her, her qualities.

"In my colony, they believe that intelligence and the separation from others are important for one's true potential to be reached. So, everything that I'm hearing about you is good Peridot." Peridot felt butterflies in her belly as she heard her name roll off the other girl's tongue. She made it sound so nice. She wondered how such a thing was possible, it was just a name. She'd already heard her name pronounced different ways by many people, so why would her's make her feel like this? She shrugged it off and disregarded her remark. It was probably nothing anyway.

"Well, it sounds like a nice place, but electronics don't function in water so I wouldn't fit in there either." She raised a brow and laughed a bit "I don't fit in anywhere it seems." Lapis smiled sadly at her. She reached for her hand, but Peridot moved it away from her reach. Lapis took it badly and moved hers back, she was only trying to be compassionate. Maybe humans weren't like that?

"Well, that makes two of us then. I don't quite fit in at home either. They're a bit too set on their traditions."

Peridot pulled her feet out of the water and sat cross legged, getting her shorts a little wet. She other girl looked at her with a smile before pushing away from the edge "Give me a moment." She sunk slightly before using her tail to propel herself up so that she could dive under. Peridot watched as the slender body submerged itself, revealing her light blue tail fins. After a few seconds, she could no longer see her silhouette beneath the water, and she let herself calm down a bit, releasing the tension that had built up in her shoulders.

This experience was intellectually weird to her. She still had trouble believing that this Lapis Lazuli was a Mermaid, and that there were more like her. Science had proven that they couldn't possibly exist, for example, that human type bodies couldn't live in the freezing temperatures of the deep sea. But maybe it was something the government was hiding from them ? No, conspiracies weren't her thing.

After a few minutes, Lapis Lazuli returned to the surface with a bright smile. "Here, it's for you," she brought her hands out from under the water, revealing a large ribbed cantharus seashell. Peridot timidly took it from her, returning the smile, though not as wide as hers. "In our colony, giving someone a seashell is a symbol of friendship and trust." Peridot gulped.

"You want to be friends... With me?" she asked. It was rare that people tried being friends with her, really rare. No one ever found her likable enough to consistently hang around with her. She had one or two, but they were people that either she knew since she was a child, or who just sort of... Happened. In any case, those weren't exactly voluntary friendships from the other party.

"Of course I do, you've been good to me." Lapis gave her a light nod to accentuate her words. Her own people weren't exactly the nicest to her, and she was glad that she found someone that was kind to her. Even if she was someone on land. She'd risk visiting her every day if she had to. Peridot looked at her red faced. Someone genuinely wanted to be friends with her, she was at a loss of words.

"I, uhh, I-" she stuttered "I need to go home," She turned slightly to grab her shoes and slipped them back onto her feet. "I've been out too long, my parents are probably worried." She lied. She knew that her mother would of probably forgotten she even went out. She stood up and gave her a forced smile.

"I'll come by tomorrow at the same time."

"Y-yeah" She turned around and took a step, stumbling on a rock, she nervously laughed and continued her march towards her holiday home. As she reached the sandy part of the beach, she turned to see her new friend gone. She turned around and nodded to herself. There was a slight chance that she had gone crazy.


	4. Chapter 4

Peridot regrettingly threw herself face first onto her new bed. She kicked the covers down and then masterfully moved it back up with her heels, bringing it to her midsection. And after a few seconds, she turned herself over and grabbed a small stuffed Pokemon doll from her bag and held onto it. Whenever she felt that she couldn't control herself, physically or mentally, she would hold the soft toy to calm herself. It was soothing to her. A bit like a pacifier to a child.

She squeezed the plush toy as she thought back to her afternoon. It had gone from 1 to 100 really quickly, and she really didn't like that. She liked regularity. It was really important to her daily life and structured her day. She had a schedule for most things in her day, like when she would wake up, when she would eat, work or even the time of her bowl movements. She functioned thanks to consistency. But today had been utter nonsense. Not only she was in a place she didn't know, without internet, but she had really strange encounter with a mermaid. Or going crazy. She was probably crazy. She tried going over the facts disproving their existence, but it didn't change the fact that she met one. A real one. She even had gills.

She reached into her pocket and pulled out the seashell that she'd given her. It was a ribbed cantharus shell, running her fingers over the ridges that swirled around it. She hadn't looked into seashells before as she was more interested in Mechanics and Robotics, but it did in a way fascinate her. She turned over onto her side and placed it onto her bedside table. She calmly looked at it and sighed. This Lapis Lazuli was certainly kind, though a bit naive. She'd called her a nice person and wanted to be friends with her. It felt strange that after nineteen years, she had her first voluntary friend.

Because she did have friends, if that is what you want to call them. Her first friend was actually her childhood bully, Jasper. Jasper has always been bigger than the rest in her elementary school. She towered over the others and so, was stronger than the others. And being weaker than the rest, she was Jasper's play toy. But what the bigger girl hadn't realized, was that Peridot was skilled with her selection of words, and leveled the terrain. Ever since it had been a relationship of hate and love between them, each of them trying to out do the other. It had been ten years now.

The other friend that she had was Pearl, an A Grade student, just like her, who shared many classes with her. They weren't exactly friends, but it was more a mutual understanding. They talked, sat together at lunch and studied together. It had just... Happened. The two of them hadn't wanted to be her friend, it had just come to be.

And even though she was glad to have them, it was very different to have someone tell you they want to be your friend. It made her feel... Important. Like she actually had qualities that someone looked for in a person. And based on her aesthetically average friends, she was really surprised that such a stunning being could want to spend time with her. During her whole experience with education, the aesthetically nicer people had just avoided or mocked her. This whole thing felt strange. And she wasn't sure whether she liked it or not.

But she had to admit that having to explain what a mobile phone was and how it worked was quite amusing. It was refreshing to meet someone young who was utterly clueless. She thought it was cute. But it was to be expected from a mermaid. She wondered what they had invented underwater. Humans had created so many things, it was only logical for their underwater counterparts to have done the same. Maybe they had a different system for calling each other? Maybe it was comparable to what comics had imagined? Her face scrunched up as she noticed a detail in her thought process. She'd called her cute.

She turned back onto her back and crossed her arms over her stuffed toy. She never thought things that weren't relevant. So how was finding her cute useful to her thought process? She knew that she was aesthetically pleasing, but it wasn't a reason to call her cute. She'd seen many aesthetically pleasing people that she didn't find cute. What was there to deduce from this? Maybe it was a reaction due to a friendship. Friendship could lead to seeing another differently, such as 'cute'. She then recalled the indirect compliment and how she reached for her hand. Those were things that friends did, wasn't it? Friends compliment each other all the time, or are at least supposed to. And reaching for her hand... If she could recall correctly, she'd reached for her hand to comfort her. That was also something friends did.

Her mind decided to recall the conversation with the mysterious girl over and over in her head for her. All that she could remember just reinforced her friendship theory. 'Everything that I'm hearing about you is good Peridot'. She paused. 'Peridot'. Her body shivered as she remembered how the girl had pronounced her name. Was this a friendship thing? She'd never experienced it before with Jasper, nor Pearl. She'd never heard of it happening to others. If it wasn't a Friendship thing, then what was it? Was is less than Friendship? No, she'd never, ever reacted like this to someone she qualified as lower than friendship. Maybe it was a more than Friend thing ? Was it romantic interest? She laughed and stared at her toy. There was no way she was romantically interested in Lapis. Was there?

It was 3pm and Peridot sat on the same rock that she had sat on the previous day, with her feet in the water. She was on time and waiting for her new friend to arrive. She had two hours of free time before her parents would drag her out into town. And she sincerely hoped that these two hours would be the longest of her life, because she was in no way interested in spending two and a half hours visiting before eating and heading home. It meant social interaction with her family, with people she didn't know. She shuddered just imagining the possibilities of conversation topics. A light splashing sound broke her from her thoughts, revealing Lapis Lazuli.

"Hello," She greeted her with a smile and a comical wave. Peridot returned the smile.

"Hi" She replied, but then realized that she hadn't thought of conversation topics. She usually had at least ten prepared for any situation she may need them for. But she had forgotten this time. She didn't know what there was to talk about. What does one talk to a friend about? What does one talk to a mermaid about? She panicked, looked down and bit her bottom lip nervously. Lapis just observed her, and she found it stressful, yet calming, which was contradictory, but it was how she felt. "Uhm.." She inadvertently mumbled.

Lapis noticed how nervous Peridot seemed and swam to the rock side and hoisted herself up next to Peridot, her tail touching the water. It wasn't exactly the most comfortable place for her to be sat, but she figured it may be easier for them to interact if they were on the same level.

" How was your day ?" Lapis asked, understanding that the other girl was having trouble initiating conversation with her. It wasn't exactly if they knew each other enough to know what to talk about, so she figured small talk would be the best way to get to know each other. And Peridot was thankful for her doing so.

"Hasn't been very interesting so far." She sighed "I woke up at 8am, but I didn't have anything that I needed to stick to my schedule, so I kept my little brother entertained all morning. Lunch wasn't terrible, then I just waited to come here." She looked to the girl who was almost too close for comfort. She didn't really like people being in her bubble, but so far, things were going ok, she was dealing with it. She couldn't ruin her only distraction for the week.

"Sounds like you're having quite the boring day, what do you think about having a swim?"

Peridot stayed silent. Was she offering to swim because she was uncomfortable on the rock? She probably was, it wasn't exactly the best seat, even for her. And she could really do with a swim. She shrugged. "Fine, but I need to go change into my swimming costume."

"You swim dressed ?" Lapis slid herself back into the water, then looked up to her, confused. "Just swim with me undressed?"

"N-no." Peridot looked at her house, blushing furiously. There was no way that she was skinny dipping. The house wasn't too far, and she had enough time left to go change. The other girl waited patiently for her to make up her mind, though it felt more like passive aggressive persuasion to her. She could maybe just swim in her underwear? What was she wearing today? She tried to remember what she put on that morning. She'd picked out her American flag boxer shorts and dark blue sports bra. She sighed. That'd have to do.

She pulled her T-shirt off over her head and folded it, placing it next to her shoes, then stood up to remove her shorts, doing the same with them, then removed the hair clip that was holding back the top part of her hair. Lapis watched amazed. "You wear clothes under your clothes?" It almost comforted Peridot to know that what was more important to her was her layering of fabrics and not her small structure.

She sat back down and slowly slid into the water. But she wasn't prepared for her body to sink so far in the water as her head went underwater. She burst back up, her hair covering her eyes, provoking Lapis to laugh. She quickly moved them out of the way and timidly smiled. "It's quite deep here." she said, not wanted to admit that she found the spot scarily deep.

"Here, hold on to me." She swam closer to Peridot and reached out to her. Peridot looked at her hands for a second, hesitating on holding them. She then frowned at her hesitation and held onto her hands, ensuring her safety.

"Thanks."


	5. Chapter 5

Peridot let herself be guided further away from the shore before letting go of Lapis's hands. She moved her legs back and forth, and also used her arms to keep herself afloat, watching Lapis Lazuli effortlessly swim around. It was quite amazing to watch. Their eyes locked together and she quickly looked away. She turned to look at the shore, realizing how far they'd gone. She turned back to face her new friend.

"We've gone quite far out, Lapis," 

"Don't worry, I'll protect you." She smiled, swimming closer to Peridot. But Peridot's mind went into overdrive. Protect her ? Protect her from drowning, right ? Was there anything else she should be protected from ? And why was she approaching her ? Why did she always try to break her bubble ?

She then felt something brush past her foot and she screeched. She reacted by falling backwards into the water. She admitted that falling further into the water wasn't the best plan when something in the water had touched you, but it was too late for that. She regained her balance and worriedly started swimming again. 

"Sorry, that was my tail that touched you," Lapis giggled, repeatedly apologizing. Peridot frowned and pouted. "You're so cute Peridot"

"I'm not cute !" She snapped. She would have crossed her arms, but they were too busy trying to stop her from drowning. "Can you take me back to the shore now please. " Lapis nodded, but instead of taking her hand to pull her to shore, she picked up Peridot and held her in her arms. 

She swam towards the shore, keeping her eyes on the goal, but Peridot looked awkwardly up at her blue friend. She was pressed against her chest, she could feel them quite distinctly- She shook her head and looked away. She felt that if she had her glasses, she would have been able to observe her up close. For science of course.

Lapis carefully let go of Peridot, the two of them swimming inches apart from each other. The smaller girl looked up to the other. "T-Thank you" After a few seconds, she moved away and climbed back onto shore, feeling lucky that the temperature was quite hot, meaning she would dry off quickly and not awkwardly shiver. She couldn't wait to put on her t-shirt again. 

She stood on her rock, about sit down, before noticing a slightly sad look on the mermaid's face. Did she feel lonely that she was in on land and she in the water ? Peridot grumbled and jumped off her rock, and proceeded to head over to the rock that was in the water. She checked its stability, then sat on it, earning a smile from Lapis. Which for reason made her happy. Lapis moved closer to Peridot's rock, hesitating on resting herself on it, remembering how her human friend had pulled away from her touch the previous day. She simply stayed close enough to be able to talk to each other.

"So what's it like underwater ?"

"Underwater? Well..." She paused a second to think, "It's pretty in some areas. There's a lot of fish. It's pretty boring ? Our colony is not too far away from here, but it's a boring place. There are a lot of rules, our chief is very strict."

"It's pretty strict here too. We have governments, sort of like a group of chiefs, that decide what rules other should abide by. But on land we're millions, we need rules or things get out of hand."

"Millions ? We're barely fifty..." She sighed before continuing, "We have stories on how humans trick Mermaids to come onto land to kill them. But no one from my colony has ever met a human, not even the chief."

"You'd be surprised but we have exactly the same stories about you. We have a lot of stories about mermaids. Such as ones that exchange their lower body for legs to live on land with the person they fall in love with. Or the ones where you lure people into the water with songs, to drown them."

"We've never done that!" 

"There just stories."

"But I've heard about getting legs, I'm not sure how to do it. Maybe i could find out for next time ?" She looked up to Peridot, who stared straight back at her. She still couldn't get over those deep blue eyes. She was truly amazing.

"Y-yeah, that'd be in-interesting" She stammered and looked away. She gripped the rock she was sat on , trying to get a hold of herself. She had to stop herself from having such weird thoughts. These exact thoughts were proving the theory she'd come up with the previous day to be true. She couldn't let herself fall to such a level. She couldn't just let herself do something so stupid and illogical as falling in love. But she knew very well that there was no way to stop love. Science wasn't that advanced, yet.  
She reached up to grab her glasses, putting them on and then to her vest and pulling out her phone, checking the time. It had been approximately three-quarters of an hour since she met up with Lapis, meaning she had about an hour left, giving her an extra fifteen minutes to shower before going out to town.

Her mind proceeded to wonder back to the love theory. She knew that she couldn't stop it from happening. In fact, she was pretty sure it was happening. If she couldn't stop it, what could she do about it ? She could try to ignore it, and fail. She could stop meeting up with Lapis, and feel emotionally dead. Or she could just give in, after all, it was just a week. But even if she acted upon this feeling she had, would Lapis accept it or refuse it ? She mentally shook her head. In science, the only way to find out a reaction was to cause the reaction.

Lapis watched the human in silence. She found it strange yet interesting that she could spend so much time thinking. Mermaids were all about being open to each other, speaking their thoughts. Humans were apparently the opposite. She swam back slightly as Peridot let herself fall back into the water again.

"Could you hold me a sec' " Lapis looked at her confused, but accepted. "Hmm, could you like, hmm, never mind." She moved away from her, causing Lapis to sadden a bit. What ever she was trying to do, Lapis was clearly not helping. Peridot moved back to the rock and search for a deeper one, one she could stand on and be at the right height to face Lapis. After a few minutes, she found what she was looking for and happily stood on it. "Can you come here please." 

Lapis once again followed the order and swam in front of Peridot. The smaller girl breathed in deeply and set her eyes on her friend. She grabbed her shoulders, surprising Lapis, and leaned forwards.


	6. Chapter 6

"Peridot ?"

Lapis quickly ducked underwater, letting Peridot fall forwards into the water. She quickly got back up to the shore to see who foiled her plan. She was greeted by her brother, whom seemed glad to see her. She wasn't.

"What do you want Danny ?" she asked as she cleaned her glasses on her t shirt."Aren't you meant to be cooking with mom ?"

"I was ! We made a cake and lots of cookies! I even got to lick the bowl!"

"Then why are you here?" The boy frowned at the annoyed tone of Peridot's voice. He could tell that he wasn't wanted, but he was used to it and decided he'd just ignore it and continue.

"Mom told me to come and get you! We're going into town in ..." he paused a second, trying to remember how to count time, "... Three quarters of an hour ! She wants you to go get ready to go out."

Three quarters of an hour? She'd been out for over an hour already? Time seemed to just fly by, sadly. "You go ahead and tell mom I'll be there in a minute, tell her that i was swimming, ok ?" The boy smiled and saluted playfully, before running off back to the house. 

Peridot sat on her rock, waiting a few minutes to see if Lapis would come back. She wondered what would have happened if her stupid brother hadn't ruined the moment. Would Lapis have kissed back ? or maybe push her away ? Maybe Mermaids didn't even show affection like humans did and Lapis would have just been confused ? She hadn't thought of that. It was probable though. There was so much that she didn't know about mermaids, so much she didn't know about Lapis. 

But she felt that she didn't have the time to slow down and get to know her and her culture, even though she wanted to. She was only in Beach City for a week, but then again it was only Monday, she still had till mid-day Sunday. She learned how to write in CSS in less than a week, so she probably had the time to learn all about Lapis, with extra time to learn about Mermaids. She just had to prepare before meeting with Lapis, so that she knew what to ask. The more she'd be prepared, the more she'd learn.

A few minutes had passed and she hadn't returned, sadly. So Peridot slipped on her T-shirt and picked up the rest of her stuff, casting one last look at the sea before headed back to the beach house. She ignored her mother on her way in and headed up to her room. She dumped her clothes on the desk and grabbed her shampoo, soap and towel, heading out to the bathroom for a nice cleansing shower.

Peridot didn't quite like Beach City. It was too quiet and there was nothing to do. At least in bigger cities you could actually see people and do things. All they had here was... Food places and an arcade, or at least for what she had seen so far. Her father had ordered a couple of Pizzas that they'd pick up on their way back to the beach house, and Peridot wished that it could just go quicker. So she could eat her Pizza and go to bed.

But no, her parents had to make conversation with everyone they met on their way across town. What was the point of talking to people they'd never see ever again ? Her parents were sat on the terrace of the Donuts place, talking with some tall curly-haired woman, dumping her and her brother with the two kids they met at the fries shop.

"And i saw them! I saw them come up to the shore once! I swear! They're like, huge! With colored skin and sharp teeth! They've been eating all the fish, that's why the fishermen are catching less. I even got a photo on my blog."

"Wow!! Can i see !?"

Peridot kept her head down into her crossed arms, her brain hurting thanks to all the stupid things this boy Ronaldo was spewing out. Her brother just made it worse by encouraging him.

"I only managed to get a photo of its tail, it was too fast for me to be able to capture its terrifying beastly appearance !"

Peridot raised her head slightly, watching her brother marvel in front of the photo of a big fish's tail in the water. Ronaldo's brother on the other hand agreed with Peridot that the contents of his blog was just rubbish rumors and fake photos. But even he gave up arguing with him, he was insistent in his stupidity.

"I also have a photo of a girl with blue skin swimming !" Peridot frowned at his words and grabbed his phone to see the photo. "Hey!" She ignored him and zoomed in to get a clear view the girl swimming back towards the camera. It looked like Lapis to her. How did he even get a photo of her ? What if he would go looking ? She couldn't let the dumb boy do anything stupid, she had to persuade him that it was fake.

"Oh- Ahah" She laughed, unconvincingly, "Nice one, it's a fake. I've seen this done a thousand times on the internet. It's a prank Ronaldo. Someone was pranking you."  
"No way! It can't be!"

"It is, you can see the paint washing off. " She lied, hoping that thanks to the terrible quality would cover her claim. He took back his phone and nodded as he looked at the blur of pixels.

"I see i see. " He then deleted the picture, "I thought it was suspicious. Thanks for confirming that for me Peridot. We would make a good team, two smart people uncovering all the mysteries of Beach City !"

"I'll pass on the offer, thanks."


	7. Chapter 7

"Rise and shine! Lunch is ready."

Peridot grumbled as her curtains were violently pulled open, sunlight shining straight into her face. She listened to her mother's footsteps leave her room and move downstairs. She smiled to herself and turned onto her side, rolling herself into her warm blanket.

"Peridot !"

She opened her eyes, glaring through the flooring to her insistent parent. She sat up and put on her slippers, dragging herself down to the kitchen in her pajamas. She rubbed her eyes and yawned, still not awake enough to realize that it was mid-day. But frankly, she didn't care what time of day it was. She quietly greeted her mother who was preparing lunch with her brother and went to join her father at the table.

"Good afternoon Peridot." He barely looked up to her.

"Good afternoon, Dad." She replied, pouring herself a glass of water to help herself wake up. She sipped it slowly as she observed the beach through the glass doors leading onto the terrace, intentionally avoiding talking with him. She wondered what Lapis was doing right now.

But before she could even start thinking about the possibilities, her brother joined them at the table.

"Guess what Peri !!" She sipped from her glass again and looked at him, signaling that she was listening. Instead of simply sitting like a normal person, he sat on his legs, making himself taller. "Mom invited Peedee and his brother over for tea !"

"What?" How could her mother invite that moron of a boy over ? She really, really hoped she didn't have to stay and put up with his gibberish. She hated socializing at the best of times, but he was the worst thing that'd ever happened to her, so far. 

"Yeah ! And we're gonna eat that cake we made yesterday !! I'll also be able to show them my awesome Super Mega Robot Man !!" He gestured around, trying to demonstrate how cool his toy was, but a hand on the shoulder from his mother calmed him down again. And with a couple of trips to the kitchen, she distributed the plates of food. 

"So Danny told you about the boys coming around today ? I'm counting on you to keep an eye on them, Peridot. But that should be fine, you seemed to be getting along well with that boy, Ronaldo."

"Sure" She replied, sarcastically. But her mother clearly didn't pick up on it.

"Great ! Well your father and i are going out this afternoon, so you'll both be on your best behavior, right ?"

"Yes mom" the two of them replied, on very different tones.

She wondered how she was supposed to go see Lapis with two children and an idiot following her around. Peedee and her brother would be easy to escape, Ronaldo was a different story. He was weirdly obsessed with finding conspiracies in anything and everything. And he seemed a little too keen on her. And it was kind of disturbing. She'd have to devise a cunning plan to get rid of him if he was too clingy. But even if she did manage to get rid of them, it wouldn't be long till they went looking for her.

She looked out of the window again, gazing at the slow waves rolling against the beach. It was somewhat relaxing. Which surprised her since she was never, ever relaxed. She always had something to think about, school, a project, escaping social obligations. But the rhythm of the waves just slowed her down. She'd have to remember to use such a technique when she got home.

When she snapped back to reality, she was the only one left at the table. She could hear her mother in the kitchen and her brother playing in his room. Her dad had disappeared, as always. She quickly ate a bit more of her food before standing up to bring her plate and cutlery to the kitchen.

"You really should eat more, sweetie."

Peridot looked at her plate to see that she hadn't eaten even half of her serving. She sighed and tossed it in the bin, guessing that no one would want her scraps. Or in this case most of her meal. She put it all in the dishwasher and disappeared to her room. She got dressed into some comfy clothes and brushed her teeth before throwing herself onto her bed.

She observed the sea shell that she was given, thinking about her beautiful mermaid friend. She wondered why she hadn't returned yesterday. Was she really selective about what humans she spoke to ? And if that was the case, why was she chosen to be spoken to ? She sighed, arriving at the same conclusion that she got the previous day. She knew nothing about her.

Frustrated, she turned over to face her stuffed toy. "At least i know all the facts about you Electrike." She comforted herself by recited the Pokemon's stats and moveset, along with its habitat and trivia. Reciting things she was sure about was the only other way she knew to calm herself down. And it surely did the job as she slowly started dozing off.

 

"Does she usually sleep during the afternoon ?"

"Not really, she's usually busy doing her science stuff "

"Maybe she caught an illness that's putting her into a coma, or she's been drugged by those sea monsters !" There was a pause "Don't trust anyone."

"Stop being stupid" Another voice added.

Peridot simply opened her eyes, staring at the wall, not even bothering looking at the intruders. She knew who the idiots were. "Why are you clods in my room?"

"We'll be downstairs" Peedee dragged his brother out, Danny following behind. Peridot turned over and opened the draw in her bedside table, pulling out her phone to check the time. 2:45 pm. She double checked the time and quickly jumped out of bed. She had 15 minutes to meet Lapis. She locked her door and pulled out her swimming costume, quickly getting changed. She swiftly made her way downstairs to be met by Ronaldo at the bottom.

"M'lady" 

"No" She walked past him and towards the front door, but he followed. "Stop following me."

"Where you going?"

"Out"

"I'll come with you then."

"No you won't."

"Why not."

"I'm going swimming."

"Don't worry ! These are actually swim shorts ! I'm always prepared, you see."

"Don't care. I'll be back soon." she paused at the front door and stared at him in the eyes. "I trust you to take care of my brother." She quickly opened the door and stepped out,   
ignoring any complaints from the boy. She quickly headed to the rocky side of the beach, hoping she wasn't too late. She sighed, relieved as she saw Lapis at their usual spot.

"Peridot! I thought you weren't going to come !"

"Sorry- Uh- My parents dumped me with my brother and two boys we met yesterday. I had to escape them first." She lied. She overslept. She sat on her usual rock, and started to take her shoes off. "One of the boys i met yesterday is this crazy kid who believes in aliens and monsters and stuff'. He thinks there are monsters in the sea, and he even got a photo of you ! Your lucky i got him to delete it before he did anything stupid with it."

"Photo?"

"Uh... To put it simply a machine reproduces what we can see onto a surface." Peridot removed her T-shirt during her explanation and folded it neatly, placing it on top of her shoes. "I convinced him that it was someone playing a trick on him."

"I see..." She nodded, appreciating what Peridot did for her. She watched as her human friend removed her trousers and added them to the pile of clothing and admired the different type of clothing she was wearing today. "What type of clothing is that? Is it like the clothes from under your clothes ?"

"No, those were underwear. This is a swimming costume." She pulled at the fabric around her stomach to loosen it slightly before moving over to a lower rock so that she could dip her feet in the water. Lapis smiled softly, making Peridot feel slightly uneasy, forgetting any planned conversation starters in the process.

"I'm sorry i didn't come back yesterday, I -"

"It's fine, I had to go home anyway." Peridot mentally slapped herself, she'd just stopped Lapis when she was possibly going to say something interesting about herself or mermaids, plus she just ruined a conversation starter. "Uhh- Why not tell me a bit about yourself ?" She tried, biting her lip slightly.

"Oh, well I'm not that interesting, really."

"Sure you are!" She replied a little to quickly, "I mean, i think your interesting, and I'm interested." 

"Well, if your interested, what do you want to know? " She swam closer to Peridot, resting her arms beside her, keeping her from moving too much. Peridot looked at the distance between them and thought back to the previous day and how close she was to kissing her. But she realized that she knew to little to try doing it again. "Peridot?"

"Anything really."

"Well, I'm 185 years old and I'm the 23rd daughter of our tribe Leader, Cyan. I love stories and the colors of the sky." Peridot smiled to herself, she was so nice. She seemed to be an artistic type. The opposite of her. She hoped the stories were true and that opposites attracted. "How about you ?"

"I'm 19, i have one brother, called Daniel, he's the one who disturbed us yesterday. I like challenges and knowledge."

"So you're very smart then, aren't you?"

Peridot smiled. She could either be cocky or modest, she picked the in between. "How did you guess ?"

"You say a lot of things i don't understand, complex things. And you said you like knowledge-"

"I was being sarcastic." Lapis stuck her tongue out at her for being teased. She held onto Peridot's heels and pulled her into the water. "He-hey!" Without any time to protest, she found herself submerged. She quickly burst up above the surface to catch her breath, scowling at her mermaid friend who just watched her while laughing. "Warn me first, unlike   
you, i need air to breathe !"

Lapis suddenly stopped moving, and watched the shore carefully. She could see someone approach, heading towards them.

"Hey, Stop ignore me-" Lapis quickly pulled Peridot underwater with her, unwilling to abandon her like she had done previously. The human tried protesting, bubbles leaving her mouth desperately as she was pulled further down into a colder part of the water. 

And it seemed to her like Lapis had completely ignored her previous statement about needing air, because she was already running out. She quickly covered her mouth, painfully trying to hold on to the small amount of air she had, watching Lapis who observed the surface.

She breathed out the last air she had and desperately looked to Lapis. The blue girl looked down from the surface, realizing that Peridot was suffocating. But they couldn't resurface yet. 

She moved closer to Peridot and pressed her lips softly against hers.


	8. Chapter 8

The two of them resurfaced and Peridot clung to one of the rocks, watching Lapis nervously, unsure what to do with herself. She couldn't get her brain to function and work past this. She could still feel Lapis's lips pressed against hers. 

"Sorry, there was a boy, i- i just didn't want you to leave again."

"It's fine ! Really, i mean, i didn't enjoy almost dying, but you helped with that. So, its fine. Don't worry." She smiled. Lapis didn't want her to leave. This meant that she enjoyed the time they spent together, enough to feel sad when she leaves. Could this mean that she liked her life Peridot liked her ? She ignored that thought and pushed her hair off of her forehead, deciding to enjoy their time together now and think about stuff like that later.

Lapis watched at Peridot pushed off the side to glide past her. "It's a shame you can't stay underwater longer, there's some amazing things i could show you, like the temple ruins, or the fish maze..."

"Wow, temple ruins."

"You wouldn't believe the size of it !"  
Peridot paused a second. It seemed that Lapis really wanted to show her the underwater world she lived in, not that she wasn't interested. She'd have to figure out something to stay under longer. She'd maybe have to rent scuba diving gear or something, or she could just ask for frequent air exchange.

She kicked back and forth in the water, with a frequent breaststroke to keep her upright, "Tell me about your people, are they as amazing as you?" 

"Well... No one in my colony is interested about what happens on the surface. There isn't a rule that stops us from coming up, but we're taught that humans will kill us on sight, so we just... don't."

"So why do you come to the surface ?"

"I used to come up to see the sky, but now i come up to see you."

"To see me..." She whispered inadvertently "You're people are kind of right though, humans get scared of what they don't know and end hurting things. That's why i got rid of that photo Ronaldo took of you."

"But you haven't hurt me, you've been kind."

"Well then I'm the exception. Any one else would have run, tried to catch you or kill you."

"I'm lucky I met you and not someone else then." She watched Peridot swim to the shore and sit up on one of the rocks, clearly getting tired of swimming. Which was understandable she supposed, humans weren't meant for living in the water. 

Peridot watched her friend approach the shore, moving in front of her and crossing her arms on her lap, resting her head on them. Peridot couldn't escape the contact, but she didn't really mind, if anything, she was loving it. And if she let her mind wander off, she could actually feel her pressed up against her legs. Soft. 

She looked away, embarrassed, trying to find something to talk about. But as she looked at her rock, she realized something. "Where are my clothes ?" She turned slightly to get a better view. "They're gone !"

"Maybe the person who came took them ?"

"If it was Ronaldo... I'll kill him."

"I'm sure whoever took them thought they were doing the right thing,"

She sighed, she knew that Lapis was probably right, but that still didn't stop her from wanting to kill him. She shook her head, trying to think about something else but Ronaldo. Maybe she should ask some basic questions about mermaids ? It could be useful. 

"Hey, Lapis ?" She asked, unsure whether she was awake or not. She was answered with a hum, signaling her to continue. "What do mermaids eat ? Do you have a limit to how long you can stay out of the water ? Do..." She paused a second, hesitating on asking a question about how they show affection. But not knowing how to ask such a question she decided to go for something different. "Do your colors vary ?"

"Hmm, we mainly fish. And I'm not sure... Probably about an hour ? No one has really tried so i can't really give you an answer." She shifted slightly, "And sure our colors vary, but we're mostly Blue in our Colony." Peridot could hear her voice slowly lower till a few seconds later she could hear slow breathing. She had fallen asleep on her. She wondered why she was so tired when the previous days she'd been fine. It made her wonder where exactly her colony was. Was it far enough out for her to get tired from travelling to the shore ? It was the only logical reason. But even so, she was sleeping on her.

And she was looked incredibly peaceful. She let one of her hand softly rest on her head, softly stroking her hair. She wasn't one to show affection, but it felt easy with Lapis. Everyone was difficult, liars and selfish. But Lapis was kind to her and seemed to genuinely care. Maybe it was just human society that was toxic, maybe mermaids were all honest. Then again, maybe Lapis was the exception to mermaids like she is to humans ?

"What do humans eat?" Peridot's heart sped up, realising that Lapis wasn't asleep and she had been stroking her hair. "Do you come in different colors ?"

"We eat fish too, but we eat meat, fruits and vegetables too." She quickly answered as she tried to carefully untangle her fingers from Lapis's hair. "And we're not as colourful as you, we're pretty dull, ranging from Black to White." 

"Don't move your hand, it was nice." She mumbled into her arm, still resting comfortable on Peridot's lap. The human girl rested her hand back on her head as instructed and listened to her continue. "It'd be nice to try human food. It's probably nice."

"Some of it is. Maybe i can bring you some someday ?"

Lapis raised her head up to look at Peridot with stars in her eyes. "You would do that for me ?" Peridot nodded, "You're amazing Peridot !! Thank you !" She swiftly jumped up far enough to hug her, pulling her down towards her. 

"I- I haven't done anything yet-" She tried contesting, unsure whether she should just hug her back or just not do anything. But the mermaid seemed to linger longer that expected, so she put her hands on her back, taking in the affection. "You're welcome."

Lapis let go of her and sank back into the water. "I should bring you food from my colony too, that way it'd be fair !"

"Oh, you don't have to, really-" Peridot tried arguing, but quickly gave up. "Ok. Sure." She paused a second, remembering a question she wanted to ask. "By the way, Lapis, how far away is your colony ?"

"Hmmm" She slightly pinched her lip as she thought, then gestured as she replied "Approximatly an hour and a half, maybe two hours away ?" It wasn't exactly a useful answer as a varied amount of distance could be covered over two hours depending on her speed and the currents. But it was still two hours of swimming. 

"Isn't it tiring to come all the way out here just to see me ?"

"A bit, but it's worth it once I get here. And anyway, its more relaxing by the shore."

"If you say so." She quietly watched her swim around as she tried to remember how long she had been out. Time seemed to pass so quickly that she had a hard time trying to figure it out, but was pretty sure that it was the one hour mark. She sighed. It meant she'd have to head back to check up on the boys to make sure they weren't going to get her in trouble. "Lapis, I'm going to have to head back, I was supposed to be keeping an eye on my brother and his friends, if I don't at least check up on them, i might get in trouble later."

"Its fine, responsibilities come first. I can wait for you if you like ?" She tried, hoping to spend more time with her.

"S-sure ! I might be a little while though, if you think I'm taking too long don't bother staying, I don't want you to get bored or seen or something." She carefully got up, making sure not to slip and fall into the water. "If I don't see you again today, I'll come by tomorrow at the usual time." Lapis agreed and with that she headed across the stoney path to the beach and up to her temporary home.

She stepped inside and was immediately knew something had gone wrong. She checked downstairs, making sure there was no mess before heading for the stairway. She decided to first check her bedroom, to check it hadn't been invaded, and she felt like she was going to set everyone in the house on fire when she saw the mess.

Her suitcase had been emptied out on the floor and her computer case opened. But the computer wasn't there. In a fit of temper, she crossed the hallway to her brother's room where she could hear voices.

"Who the hell touched my stuff?" 

Peedee and her brother looked up to her, confused. "What stuff ?" her brother asked. If the two of them didn't know, then it had to be the third idiot. 

"Peedee, where's your brother ?"

"Uh- He said he was going out, but i doubt he went home, so m-maybe he's up at the lighthouse ?"

Without a word of thanks, she stormed out and into her room, quickly drying her hair with her towel and putting on a pair of short and a loose T-shirt. She rummaged through her stuff, finding mixed in with her clean clothes her stuff from the beach, finding her glasses in a shoe. She put on a pair of flip-flops and cleaned her glasses before heading out to find the computer thief.


	9. Chapter 9

Peridot was kind of glad that she got to visit Beach City as it facilitated the search for the lighthouse. She quickly crossed town, and powered her way up the hill, reaching the building in a matter of minutes. She quietly opened the door to the lighthouse, wanting to surprise Ronaldo red-handed with her laptop. She crossed the room to the stairway and headed up to the top, trying to keep the noise of the creaking stairs to a minimum. At the top, she paused to catch her breath and quietly opened the door, checking for the thief.

On the other side of the room, she could see her laptop on a chair, open and turned on. She couldn't make out what was on the screen, but just the thought of the idiot going through her files and possibly corrupting them enraged her. In no way did she want to lose the many hours of work she had on there. Ronaldo was stood next to the chair, standing in front of a chalkboard, writing and drawing things as he talked to himself, a hand on his chin, somewhat pensive.

She had to devise a plan to recuperate her laptop while avoiding confrontation, as much as she would have loved punching him in the face she wouldn't stand a chance against him. She could hide behind the center light and quickly grab her laptop and run for it. After a few seconds of reflection, she deemed it the only plan that would avoid actually coming into contact with the boy. So she sneaked in and hid, and carefully crept towards the chair. She crept forwards and reached out to her laptop, and as she put her foot down on the old flooring, it creaked.

"Ahah !" Ronaldo shouted, unsurprised by her presence. He pounced at her, causing her to shriek and fall under his weight. "I knew you would come and try retrieve your laptop ! I know what you are, you can't trick me."

"What ?" She tried squirming out from under him, but he was too heavy. He reached to the pocket on his trouser leg and pulled out duck tape, taping them together. "What are you doing you clod !!?" She shrieked before he tapped her mouth shut. He stood up and moved the laptop from the chair to the ground. He then pulled her up off the ground and seated her on the chair.

"I know what you are Peridot, but where did you hide it ?" He asked as he checked her pockets. The only answer he received though was a confused mumble from his prisoner. "I searched your room and asked your brother, but i still couldn't find it. But your laptop is proof ! You're studying us humans and our ways !" Peridot raised a brow in disbelief. She'd underestimated how dumb he was. "But since I'm unable to find it, it means you must have hidden. But i know how to get you to reveal yourself."

Peridot was confused. What did he think she was ? Was she supposed to be a government spy ? Or a magical being aiding the destruction of earth ? Destroying the Earth didn't sound quite so bad if other humans were as dense as he was.

"We're going for a walk Peridot" He pulled her off the chair and directed her out of the lighthouse. She tried protesting by not moving her legs or kicking him, but the years of inactivity had rendered her weak and incredibly light. For once she almost regretted not taking up a sport. They headed down the hill, quickly reaching the beach. And in one last attempt to escape the lunatic that held her captive, she kicked him in the heel, causing him to lose balance. She tried to run, wobbling across the sand but without her arms for balance she fell flat into the sand. "You can't escape me, Selkie !" he shouted as she got back up.

Peridot turned herself over to face the boy that loomed over her, scared for her life but also trying to hold back laughter. A Selkie ? He thought she was some sort of Seal person ? That was ridiculous. Though she would probably accept their existence now that she has a mermaid as a friend, her actually being one was utterly stupid. She born and raised on land, with quite the human parents.

"I know you have your skin with you, so I'll force you to use it !" He pulled the tape off her mouth, "Then I'll have proof of what has been attacking the fishermen, you and your Seal people !" He held her loosely at the edge of the beach. Back to the water, Peridot was unsure to how deep the water was, and she prayed that was too deep. "Then i'll post it to my blog and people will finally take me seriously !"

Out of the corner of her eye, Peridot noticed Peedee and her brother Danny running across the beach towards them. "Peedee ! Tell your idiot brother to let go of me !" She screeched. Surprised by the incredibly loud plea, and approach of people, he let go. And unable to balance, Peridot stumbled backwards, then forwards, turning herself around, to finally fall face forwards into the water. She could now confirm that this was shallow water.

"What are you doing Ronaldo !" His brother scolded him, pushing him out of the way to see Peridot face down in the water, groaning into the water, bubbles popping up around her face. Danny who was a little slower finally caught up and helped his sister turn over and get up out of the water, releasing her from the ducktape. "Are you trying to get yourself in trouble ! You can't just... Drown people !!" He shouted, scaring his brother into taking a step back.

"But i had proof ! There was.. Suspicious content on her laptop !"

Peridot wiped the salt water and sand from her mouth with the back of her hand before pushing him back into the sand with the little strength she had. "I study science, physics and robotics at university ! Of course it'd look suspicious to a... Clod !" She took her brother by the hand and walked past Ronaldo who sat dumbfounded on the beach. "Let's go get my laptop and go home."


	10. Chapter 10

Peridot ran up the stairs of their holiday home and slammed the door of her bedroom shut as she entered, throwing herself on her bed in the process. She grabbed her stuffed toy and hugged it tightly against herself, trying to slow down her racing heartbeat. This was the exact reason she hated interacting with others. People were just so dumb and inconsiderate. Always using their stupidity to make up excuses for what they don't know or understand. She couldn't understand why they were so happy in their lack of intelligence. 

She curled up in a ball and stared intensely at the wall. She couldn't get the feeling of almost drowning out of her head. She enjoyed adrenaline to a certain point, just like anybody else, but a near death experience was too much for her. She'd never been so glad her brother existed.

As she calmed down, her mind slowly came back to reality. She quickly got up and took off her wet clothes, changing into a completely new outfit, yet similar in its simplicity. She once again dried her hair, and looked at her towel in disgust as she found some sand. She tossed it and the wet clothes in a corner and just sat silently on the side of her bed. She stared blankly at the door, her mind clear. After a few seconds of numbness, her eyes drifted to her bedside table where the shell Lapis had given her sat. She cursed herself. She'd forgotten that Lapis was waiting for her. How long had she left her for ? Half an hour ? An hour ? Would she still be there ? She automatically bounced up at that thought and headed out again, almost forgetting what had just happened. And forgetting shoes.

She ran across the hot sand over to the rocky beach and danced around the rocks, trying not to fall over and hurt herself. She'd had enough pain for one day. But as she approached their spot she couldn't see her. But she went there anyway. She sat on the edge and sighed, defeated. The day had started out so well, she had an indirect kiss with Lapis, was able to hold her as she rested on her lap. Then Ronaldo. Ruining things. Humans... she sighed, then chuckled, realizing she had said that as if she was an alien. Sometimes she wished she was, it would explain why she was nothing like anyone else. It'd make it easier.

She leaned back, propping herself up on her hands, shut her eyes, facing the sky, and thought about Lapis, the only thing she had to cheer her up. Which she thought was kind of sad, but it was the truth. So she let herself zone out completely, remembering her time with her, blocking out the negativity of the day with the beautiful blue mermaid. She heard a splashing sound, but it hadn't registered with her. She was too busy using her perfect photographic memory to remember details of their time together that she hadn't been able to appreciate at the time, like her surprising perfume, who was oddly not like fish at all but more like... flowers. She couldn't understand why a being living underwater would smell like that and she didn't care to think about it. And she could almost smell it right now. She breathed in deeply at smiled softly.

"Peri ?"

She instantly snapped out of her day-dream and almost fell back. She quickly adjusted herself, sitting up straight and giving her an awkward smile, trying to compose herself and hush away her thoughts about her.

"H-hey Lapis" 

"How was your brother and his friend, were they doing ok ?"

"Uh..." All the events flashed before her eyes again and she grumbled "They were fine." Lapis was uncomfortably sat on the rocks beside her, with a confused look on her face. Peridot sighed and decided to explain. "It was Ronaldo, the boy who stole my stuff from the beach earlier. He stole my laptop, tied me up and then almost drowned me."

"Drowning ?"

"Humans can't breathe underwater, i was tied up and face down in the water, i couldn't get any air, i was suffocating on water, drowning. Humans die from that."

"Oh- uhm, are you.. ok ?" She sheepishly asked. Peridot stayed silent a second, over thinking her words. Was her concern friendly or more ? She wished people could just be honest and straight forward in their feelings, but then again, she herself hadn't told her about her crush yet. But from her previous research, crushes were usually just that, crushes, nothing more. Was what she feeling just a crush ? or ?

"I'm fine, i was in shock for a bit, but I'm ok- I'm glad your here to cheer me up Lapis." Peridot complimented her, trying to observe her reaction. She couldn't be sure whether she had blushed or not, since distinguishing between shades of blue from her face and wet hair was difficult. "I'm sorry you had to wait though, i mean, you must be tired, right ? I mean you were already earlier but you must be even more now, you waited like... half an hour, an hour ?"

"I'll be fine, thanks for the concern though." She smiled, making Peridot's heart burst. She'd never had a crush before, but for a first crush , it was hitting her hard. On one side, she was loving it; the happiness she was feeling just with the presence of another was incredible, but on the other, she found it ridiculous that someone with her degree of intelligence was falling for the emotion created by the release of dopamine, serotonin and adrenaline in the brain. "I'm glad your ok Peri, you were taking longer than i expected and i didn't want to leave without knowing you were ok."

She was unsure whether it was a fact that she was just trying to convince herself, but she was practically sure Lapis felt the same way about her. She had been flustered when they shared air, she didn't want to move away from contact with her and didn't want to leave without ensuring she was ok. She had to be feeling the same way. Friends don't do that, she was sure of it.

"Thanks" She glanced at the water and dipped her foot in, testing the water. It was starting to cool down as the end of the afternoon approached, but she figured she'd be ok for a little while in the water, and if it did get too cold, she could make a move and get close to Lapis for warmth. She almost laughed at the thought. Lapis watched as Peridot once again stripped into her swimming costume and got into the water, and followed her in. She watched as Peridot put in a lot of effort to stay afloat and cracked a grin.

"You don't have to get in the water just for me, you know, it looks tiring for you."

"It is, but I'll be ok, I need to do more exercise anyway." She pushed off the side and swam a few meters away from the shore, Lapis gliding through the water beside her. She looked amazing. "Oooh ok i won't go further than this, the water's too cold past here, I'm guessing it gets really deep-" Deep waters, fish, jellyfish, sharks and piranhas. She'd never let herself stay in this area of the sea as long as she is if she didn't have Lapis with her. She could fend off any vicious beast that'd take a try at her legs. Jellyfish... she randomly pondered. If i get stung, she can't pee on me, I'd have to pee on my self. How humiliating. She snapped back to reality and realized she was being observed. "S-sorry, i get lost in my thoughts sometimes."

"Oh ? What were you thinking about ?" Peridot gulped. She was thinking about how amazing Lapis was and having to pee on herself in the event of a jellyfish. Not exactly thoughts she wanted to share with her right now. 

"Hmm, n-nothing really, just the- uhm- maybe i left the oven on ?" Great save, she sarcastically mocked herself. At least she didn't know what an oven was. Hopefully she wouldn't even ask.

"Oh, i see." She replied, visibly confused but unwilling to ask. Which made Peridot relieved. She quickly took a glance at the sky, wondering what time is was. If she had made it to the beach for 3pm and was gone for about an hour, it was 4pm and sundown wasn't for another 2 hours. She looked back at Lapis and smiled. "Where's the ruins you wanted to show me ?"

"Oh- the other side of the beach,about almost a mile down." She replied, surprised. "But you can't breathe underwater ?"

"I know, but i could get some equipment so that i can tomorrow" she paused, blushing at what she was about to say " Or, Y'know, we could do like earlier? "

"I thought you didn't like it ?" 

"I-i did ! I mean, i didn't mind. I was surprised to be kept underwater, but it was fine, i mean, I'm ok with, you know... sharing air..." She subconsciously looked away, somewhat embarrassed at failure to make a coherent sentence. She would have found it impossible just a week ago for her to be at such loss of words. She who was usually so masterful with her vocabulary.

"Hmm, i don't think it'd be a good idea now, that deep would be too cold for you, but there's some cool stuff in the shallower areas if you want."

"S-sure !!"


	11. Chapter 11

The two of them swam further down the rocky beach, away from the town and reached a shallow pool of almost clear water. Which caught Peridot by surprise as now she could admire Lapis entirely. She watched the fluid movements of her tail, the sun shining down on the scales, making her glow. It was a breathtaking sight. Lapis came to a stop in front of her and she realized she had been staring. She quickly swam beside her and was amazed.

Through the clear water she could see the bottom, decorated in coral. She knew there was a Coral Reef down in Florida, but never knew there was one here. There was a lot of Staghorn Coral, with some Elkhorn Coral and Lettuce Coral spread throughout. And she was even surprised to find a few large Clubbed Finger Coral closer to shore. She'd never seen them up close before, only photos online.

"This is amazing Lapis !" She exclaimed, not even looking up. The sight was so enchanting to her. She wished she had thought about diving gear before coming back out. At least goggles and a snorkel. She swam back and forth, studying the Coral as best she could. Lapis watched, somewhat amused by her friend's interest.

Peridot carried on studying the coral for a while, having completely lost track of reality. There were so many species of Coral she hadn't had time to study before, she wished she had a camera to document them. She wasn't an artist, but the colors down there were amazing. She wondered if Lapis lived in a similarly colorful area. Almost as if on cue, Lapis swam beneath her, almost touching the coral below. She watched as she masterfully danced around, elegant and precise. She felt somewhat peaceful. She then had an epiphany and almost let out a tear. This wasn't just a crush. She was truly falling for her. She was falling in love. 

Her conclusion had stunned her, she needed to sit down, calm herself, think. Maybe even document what was happening to her. She thought she was a stranger to feelings, that logic ruled her mind, that she wasn't like weak-minded people, but clearly she was. She was human after all. She hated the lack of control. So she just let herself float with the occasional movement, watching the beautiful spectacle below. Entranced.

After a few minutes, Lapis surfaced, met with a blushing Peridot staring at the sea floor below. She watched her somewhat confused and bemused, tilting her head slightly, as if it'd helped her understand. After a few seconds she smiled. 

"Peri ?" She tried, trying to help her snap back to reality. Peridot mechanically raised her head parallel to the water and slowly turned towards Lapis. "You ok ? You get lost in your thoughts a lot. Must be busy in there." She raised a brow and laughed, only making Peridot more embarrassed with the situation. "You sure its nothing i can help with ?"

Peridot was taken aback by her sincerity. She was too perfect. She had so many amazing qualities that she could list them for days. Honest, understanding, trustworthy, thoughtful, considerate, good-natured, warm, kind and friendly... She had yet to find any negative qualities about her, maybe naivety, but even then, was that truly negative ? She scolded herself. Of course naivety was negative, when your naive you get stepped on and used. Her heart hurt thinking about Lapis being used and hurt.

"N-no it's fine, i just over think things, a lot. All the time." She coughed, trying to change the direction of the conversation. "Anyway, this is some beautiful coral."

"I'm glad you like it, its one of my favorite spots close to shore. My favorite being our spot, of course." 

She almost choked. Ok, that was gay, she thought to herself. "R-really ? That's cool." She tried to play it off, but knew she was messing things up. "Our spot's cool. Pretty cool yeah. I like the uhm... Rocks. I mean, the shape they have is caused by erosion which is pretty interesting, nature is amazing really, so many variables yet still remaining fairly predictable to a certain point. Like, uhmm, those rocks are sedimentary, formed by the deposition, alteration and or compression, and lithification of weathered rock debris, chemical precipates, or organic sediments. The process in which they're produced is- "

"Peri..."

Peridot continued detailing the process in which sedimentary rock form, trying to block out her thoughts the only way she knew: repeating facts and information she knew till she could calm herself down. But this time it was taking longer than usual, it wasn't working. She couldn't think. She thought about rock formation and then Lapis, she thought about the periodic table and then Lapis, she thought about Electrike's stats, then Lapis. She started hyperventilating as her heart raced, feeling discomfort in her chest. It wasn't working. Her only comfort wasn't working. She started to feel sick as she felt herself tremble in the water. A panic attack, she realized, perfect timing.

"Sh..ore ?" She mumbled, barely able to form a word. Worried, Lapis swooped her up and rapidly swam to their spot, helping Peridot up onto land. She was uncomfortably sat on her knees, leaning forwards, propping herself up on her arms. She needed to find a way to calm down. She had to relax, but she was having a hard time calming her breathing. It'd been far too long since she'd had one on this scale. "I'm fine, everything's fine. I'm fine, everything's fine." She repeated to herself, over and over. She squeezed her eyes shut and she painfully tried to force herself to slow her breathing. "I'm fine, everything's fine."

Lapis watched, not knowing what to do or where to put herself. She didn't understand what was happening. She had suddenly started speaking her gibberish about rocks and then started choking ? or panicking ? She wasn't entirely sure what was going on, but was incredibly worried.

After a few minutes of whispering to herself, Peridot had managed to somewhat calm herself down, slowing her breathing and her the pounding of her heart. She slowly sat down, her knees red from the pressure against the rocks. She looked to Lapis, to see her eyes wide, questioning and worried.

"Sorry, " She apologized "...I sometimes get panic attacks, I should have told you. I'm sorry for making you worry."

"What's a... Panic attack ?"

"A panic attack is a sudden overwhelming feeling of acute and disabling anxiety... Basically i panic over something silly. I can usually stop it before it goes too far, but it didn't work this time."

She pulled herself up onto the rock beside Peridot, splashing her legs slightly in the process and held her hand tightly. "I'm glad your ok. If there is anyway I can help next time, please tell me." She felt her heart racing again and put a hand to her chest, pressing it against herself. It wasn't the same type of fast beating, this wasn't panic, but it still hurt nevertheless. It suddenly eased as she felt a thumb softly rub the dorsum of her hand. "Peri... You need to think less and speak more. I can't know what your thinking about, and I can't help."

"That..." Lapis looked at her confused. She followed her gaze down to her hand. "That helps."


	12. Chapter 12

They both sat in silence for what seemed hours to Peridot but was truly just a few minutes. Her mind slowly started to clear as she took deep breaths and concentrated on the circular movements on the back of her hand. She wished that she had something as soothing as this in the past to calm her panic attacks. Eventually, she sighed and spoke up.

“I, I have to go back home now, it’s getting pretty late.” She regrettingly pulled away from Lapis’s touch and stood up on the uneven rocky beach. “My brother is probably worried and I’m sure my parents are home by now…” Lapis looked up to her softly and Peridot shied away from her gaze. “Thank you for looking after me today.”

“You would do the same for me.” 

Peridot felt the blood rush to her head. “I- Uh, see you tomorrow!” She quickly blurted out, turned around and left, leaving behind Lapis sat on the shore giggling to herself. On her way back she stopped by their spot to grab her clothes and quickly put them back on before continuing her way home. As she reached the front door to the holiday home she looked at the sky, finally acknowledging time. The sun wasn’t setting just yet, but she could tell that the sky was dulling down. She gulped, realizing it was probably past seven and that she was going to get scolded. What a perfect ending to a perfect day… 

With a deep sigh, she opened the door and stepped in, greeted by her mother setting the table. Hearing the door close, she turned to her daughter with an air of anger.

“Where have you been young lady? I though your father and I both explicitly told you to stay home and babysit!” She stood holding cutlery, expecting a reply from Peridot.

“Sorry.” She walked past her mother and dragged herself upstairs, into her room and flopped onto her bed. She pulled a cover herself and fell asleep in a matter of seconds.

Peridot was awoken early by her little brother bouncing and skipping into her room, happily exclaiming about the day’s activities. She didn’t pick up much of what he said and just turned around, curled up in her blanket, ignoring him.

With an evil grin, Danny threw himself on the bed, causing his older sister to yelp and shout at him. After throwing his weight around for a couple of seconds, he bounced up and ran out of the room before there were any repercussions. 

She stayed under her covers a few seconds before sitting up and grabbing her glasses. Taking a couple of minutes to wake up, she contemplated her room, planning what clothes she was going to change into after a shower. She eventually got up and out of bed, grabbed her clean clothes and went for a wash.

Throwing her clean clothes on the toilet seat, she made her way to the shower and switched the water onto a warm temperature and stood beneath it, waiting for it to fully awaken her. As she thoroughly washed the sand and salt water from her hair she thought back to the previous day. It felt like that one day lasted a hundred. She was still so tired from it. She hadn’t had time to inform her parents about what had happened, and she doubted that her brother had told them either, and even so, she didn’t think that either she or her brother would be believed. All she could really do was avoid him. And Lapis. Her heart started racing again and she found herself blushing, smiling stupidly.

She shook her head, trying to shake away the thought before she ended up causing herself another panic attack. But she couldn’t stop herself from grinning. She quickly finished scrubbing herself clean and turned the water off, quickly jumping out and covering herself with a towel. And as much as she tried to shake away the thoughts about Lapis and how great she was, she couldn’t stop remembering watching her gracefully swim again a bright coral background. Seeing her look back at her, softly smiling, saying her name...

She grabbed a toothbrush and furiously brushed her teeth. Remembering she was still stood butt naked, she instead dressed before resuming the tooth brushing. She swirled some water in her mouth and spat it out, then washed her toothbrush. 

She blindly looked for her glasses and once found, dried off the steam with a towel and put them on, before using the same towel to finish drying her hair. Once done, she took a breath and stretched, opened the door and stepped out into the confusing world she lived in.

Peridot found herself on auto-mode, making her choices based on her intellect and logic as she did before the holiday. She had agreed to go to the beach with her family and had a picnic. As per usual, she avoided useless conversation. She just wanted it all over and done with. She was then swimming, being splashed and kicked by her younger brother, barely able to contain her need to drown him. Her mother was playing with him, encouraging him to ‘play with his sister’. Her father was on the beach, on the phone with his boss, as per usual. She’d be angry at him, but she didn’t care. 

All of them stopped dead in their tracks when they heard shouting.

They quickly spotted a man frantically swimming towards the shore, shouting, almost screaming, in some weird language Peridot didn’t understand, nor recognize. Her father dropped his phone and rushed into the water to go rescue the man.

Her father helped the man to shore and it was then that we notice a large bite mark on his leg, bleeding. “We’re taking him to a hospital!” he told her mother, an order. She nodded and grabbed her son's hand, taking the car keys from her husband and heading off to the car as her father helped the man up.

“My car is up in the parking lot; do you think you can make it there?” 

“Mer, mermer mer mer.”

“Great. Peridot, stay home.”

Peridot was still standing in the water, just watching the scene unfold, somewhat confused by the fact that he seemed to understand the wounded man’s language.

“Uh, yeah, sure.” She simply replied. She watched them cross the beach, heading towards their car. After a few minutes of silence, she snapped back to reality and noticed that they had left all the picnic gear out, along with towels and toys. She sighed. That was why she was left behind.

She stepped out of the salty water and into the sand, sticking to her feet as she walked towards their spot. She quickly put everything in the cool box, toys and towels in their bag and lugged it back home. As she reached the front door, she realized her parents forgot to hand her the keys to the house. She made her way to the patio at the back to try the sliding door. Locked. With a deep sighed she dumped the stuff on the table and grabbed one of the towels, putting it on her shoulders for comfort.

After a few minutes of gazing at the sea, she wondered what time it was. Was it anywhere close to 3pm? She hadn’t taken her phone with her and couldn’t access her home so she had no way to find out. All she could do is walk to their spot and wait for Lapis.

Just thinking of her made her giddy. She never thought that she, the smart one, would fall for such an emotion but here she was. Falling head over heels for a mermaid she can never have a relationship with. 

She quickly searched through the bag of beach stuff for the goggles and snorkel, but couldn’t find the snorkel. She emptied the bag, but it wasn’t there. And it was as she looked up at the glass doors that she could see the snorkel sat on the dining table, teasing her. Looks like I'm gonna have to settle with mouth to mouth… She bit her lip, blushing at the thought, shook her head and settled for just the goggles and made her way to their spot.

She sat down, feet slightly in the water. And as much as she wanted to let her mind wander, she knew she’d end up thinking of her again. Daydreaming of her. So instead she concentrated on the ripples in the water caused by her feet, mesmerizing. 

She wasn’t sure of how much time had passed, but Lapis emerged from the water with a smile, which Peridot eagerly returned.

“Hey”

“Hi!” she pulled her feet back against the rock she sat on and continued, “My parents and brother have taken a guy we found at the beach to a hospital, so I have all   
afternoon to spend out here!”

“Oh?”

“Yeah, I didn’t understand what he was saying, but I think he’s one of those fishermen who’s been attacked.” Peridot noticed the worried expression on her friend’s face and decided to change the tone of the conversation, “Hey, on the bright side I get to spend more time with you. I’ll try not to ruin it this time.”

“Oh, Peri… You didn’t ruin yesterday. I still enjoyed spending time out here with you.”

“Thanks.” 

It was only after replying that she realized that she had answered a bit too abruptly and bluntly. It made her think back to the past few days. Had she always spoken so bluntly to Lapis? If she had, either Lapis thought It was normal speech for a human or thought she didn’t like her. Both were wrong, but she hoped it was the first and not the second. She couldn’t risk Lapis thinking she didn’t like her, because as her panic attack had proven, she truly did like her. A lot. 

“Oh- By the way- I’m sorry if when I speak I sound bored or mean, I don’t do it on purpose. Force of habit you see. People I speak to usually aren’t interesting so my voice sorta… reflects that.” She paused a second, “You’re not, though! You’re interesting, really interesting!”

Lapis laughed, “I’ll take that as a compliment.” She swam closer to shore, resting her arms on Peridot’s knees, her head propped on top. “And it's fine Peri, it’s kind of cute.”


	13. Chapter 13

With an entire afternoon of freedom from familial responsibilities, Peridot relaxed in the notion that she could do whatever she wanted. And what she wanted to do, was to stay with Lapis. And with the addition of a pair of goggles, she'd be able to see her underwater world clearer.

The two of them returned to the Coral filled area they'd previously visited, Peridot leaving her clothes behind and uncomfortably wearing her glasses beneath her goggles. Upon arrival, she stopped and held onto the mermaid's arm for leverage. She calmed her breathing as she remembered her panic attack from the previous day. Now that she had come to terms with her thoughts, she couldn't get so overwhelmed today, she had to make sure of that.

Being given an encouraging smile from Lapis, she let go and floated above water, observing the colorful arrangement below. When she pulled her head back up, wiping hair from her line of sight, she saw Lapis giggle.

"What?"

"You look like a dead fish when you do that." She smiled. She swam forward and past Peridot, holding her hands firmly. "Trust me." The blonde nodded and took a deep breath.

The mermaid shifted and put a hand on her back and proceeded to pull her underwater with her, the hand on her back keeping her from floating back up to the surface. Peridot was now up close with the coral, but all she could do was watch her friend.  
After a minute, she got her attention with a tap on the arm and pointed towards the surface. Quickly back above the surface, she gasped for air and settled down.

"Thanks."

 

The sun started to set and the two of them floated on their backs, watching the colors of the sky. Peridot was comforted in the idea that her parent's car wasn't back yet and she still had plenty of time to spend with her. It was day four of her holiday, meaning that after midnight she had two full days left before she would probably never see her again. Just the thought of it broke her heart. After feeling alone most of her life, she'd have to give it all up. She had to enjoy the now.

Snapping out of her thoughts, she realized that they had been floating in silence, further and further away from the shore, causing her to lose her balance, grabbing onto Lapis, apologizing profusely. The only reply she got was a laugh as she quickly grabbed the goggles that slipped off her forehead in the motions and wore it on her arm to not lose it.

"You know I can't swim this well," she felt her cheeks burn red in embarrassment, "Please, can we go back to shore."

"You want me to carry you again?" Peridot avoided her gaze, remembering the last time, so close to her chest, which only made her blush more, "Hey, Peri~" She swam upright again, grinning, trying to grab her attention "Come on, I'll take you to shore."

"Lapis, you don't have to carry me like a baby." She argued, though she did really enjoy being so close to her.

"You carry babies ?" She replied confused "But babies can swim just as well as any adult."

"That doesn't exactly make me feel any better about it." She mumbled under her breath, taking it as a blow to her ego, mermaid offspring being better than her in this situation. In addition, the sudden realization of the cold water, slowly chilling her body, made her long for the warm sand on the shore.

"How do you want me to bring you back then? Push you? On my back? Do you want me to drag you?" She grabbed her hands softly and began to pull her towards the shore, giggling at Peridot's expression as she was splashed with cold salt water. She stopped abruptly and Peridot found herself pressed against her, glasses wet and vision blurry, looking up. "You alright?"

Her voice was soft like an angel had whispered the meaning of life in her very own ears. And she was Speechless. Her mouth just hung open as she stared up at her, her beauty visible even through the drops of water on her lenses. This girl was amazing in every way.

Before Peridot could even make a move, Lapis made hers. Putting her hands on the smaller girl's waist, she tilted her head as she leaned down to claim her lips. They brushed together a few seconds as she hesitated, the warmth of her breath sending chills down Peridot's body, then shockwaves as they lightly pressed together. She felt as if she had died and had been sent to heaven, gifted with the luxury of utter bliss. She released her tensed muscles and rested her hands on the mermaid's bare chest, reciprocating the kiss.

The kiss broke as Lapis couldn't contain her smile, Peridot watched, confused.

"What?"

"I finally got the confidence kiss you," She giggled in disbelief, "I'm so happy."

Peridot's eyes opened as wide as they could go. She was amazed. Lapis liked her too. Lapis liked her too! She couldn't believe it. Not only someone liked her, but that she could make someone happy. Lapis was crying and laughing because of her. 

Peridot felt amazing. She felt big. 

She felt... Human.


End file.
